OBSERVATIONS FROM THE FINTECH SNARK TANK

For readers unfamiliar with the fintech snark tank, this annual list subscribes to the deep throat approach to ranking banking technologies.

I wish this was a porn reference, but it isn’t. In the film All The President’s Men, Woodward and Bernstein meet their informant – whom they call Deep Throat – in a parking garage who tells them, “Follow the money.”

The really “hot” technologies in banking are the ones financial institutions invest in – not necessarily the ones the experts talk about.

At the end of the last seven years, Cornerstone Advisors surveyed financial institutions to find out where their technology dollars will go in the coming year. the What’s going on in banking in 2022? Study shows some shifts in technology focus for the coming year.

The hottest technologies in banking

The top 5 list for 2020 and 2021 reflects minor changes in priorities in each of those years, as the same technologies were added to the list for both years, but in a slightly different order.

For 2022, however, three new technologies will crack the list: chatbots, machine learning, and digital lending systems.

Digital account opening: do it already!

It’s 2022 – why is the industry taking so long to implement digital account opening? This should have happened years ago. This is not rocket science. According to Alex Johnson, Director of Fintech Research at Cornerstone Advisors and author of the Fintech Takes Newsletter:

“Financial institutions attach too much importance to digital account opening; as if offering a great digital account opening experience magically drives customer acquisition. This is nonsense. If you repaint your storefront every year, sales won’t increase if customers don’t like the product you’re selling. “